KLEM News PM Update April 18, 2011

The announcement of a two-million dollar gift from Jack and Mary DeWitt of Holland, Michigan was at the Northwestern College spring Board of Trustees meeting.

Northwestern College President Greg Christy told trustees the gift brings the DeWitts' total learning commons commitment to three million dollars.

To date, the Orange City private college has received gifts and pledges of nine-point-three-million dollars toward the 15-million dollar goal.

The learning commons will bring together the library, classrooms, writing center, archives, coffee shop and a community room with views of the campus green.

The board voted to move to the design-development phase of the learning commons project during a meeting last Thursday and Friday.

The new Board chair is Dave Van Engelenhoven of Orange City who was vice chair. Van Engelenhoven moves to the chairmanship previously held by Drew Vogel of Orange City. Marty Guthmiller of Orange City is the new vice chair.

(LE MARS)-Le Mars Community School students are enhancing their research and reading skills through National History Day.

Le Mars Community sixth through 8th graders, and an occasional high school student are in the Challenge program led by faculty member Jeannie Rust.

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Rust says National History Day students develop reading skills that include historical documents and books such as one read by a student this year written by the last queen of Hawaii.

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The research by the Challenge students includes interviews with people who have changed history.

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Rust believes she receives a great deal of support for the National History Day program.

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MAPLETON, Iowa (AP) Six pastors joined at one church to lead a community prayer service for the people of Mapleton, which was hit hard by a tornado more than a week ago.

The pastors and dozens of people of different faiths gathered at St. John's United Methodist Church on Sunday

More than 140 homes and businesses were damaged on April 9. The service focused on the fact that no one was killed that evening.

The congregants heard Bible passages read by church leaders.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) Hundreds of people turned out for a job fair in Sioux Falls held by officials with the Grand Falls Casino Resort being built just across the South Dakota border in northwest Iowa.

The Sunday event was the first of six job fairs being held this week in South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota. They end back in Sioux Falls on Saturday.

The resort near Larchwood, Iowa, will employ more than 700 people when it opens later this spring. The company says it expects to fill more than 500 of those jobs through the job fairs.

The line of applicants Sunday was so long officials decided to open the doors 20 minutes early. Casino General Manager Sharon Haselhoff says the interest is ``a good sign.''

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A bridge connecting Iowa and Illinois north of Clinton will be closed for up to a week because of the rising Mississippi River.

The Iowa Department of Transportation says the two-lane bridge on U.S. Highway 52 between Savanna, Ill., and the small town of Sabula, Iowa is closing Monday afternoon and won't reopen until flood waters recede.

The bridge carries roughly 2,400 vehicles a day and is mostly local traffic.

Iowa Department of Transportation spokeswoman Dena Fisher-Gray says a short stretch of U.S. Highway 61 near Davenport has also been closed.

Flood warnings have been posted along the Mississippi River from just north of Dubuque down to Keokuk. The National Weather Service says snowmelt and runoff from recent rains has caused the river to rise.

DOUGHERTY, Iowa (AP) An 82-year-old Iowa man remains in critical condition after an auger fell on him near the northern Iowa town of Dougherty.

The Cerro Gordo County Sheriff's Office told Mason City television station KIMT that Edward Noss (NAHS) and another man were loading corn on Saturday when a truck hit the auger and the auger fell on Noss.

The other man was able to get the auger off Noss.

Noss was flown to a Mason City hospital. He was then transferred to St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, Minn.

Hospital spokeswoman Kelley Luckstein (LUHK'-styn) said Monday that Noss remained in critical condition.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency plan to tour two Iowa farms and a biodiesel plant to discuss with farmers joint conservation and land restoration initiatives.

Vilsack and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson are scheduled to visit farms near Pleasantville and Prairie City and a biodiesel plant near Newton Tuesday.

Vilsack says the agencies work closely together on conservation and land restoration efforts and the visit Tuesday will allow farmers to meet with him and Jackson together for the first time.

He says it's important for farmers to hear firsthand from Jackson about what the EPA is doing and to dispel mischaracterizations about some EPA programs. He says it's also an opportunity for Jackson to hear firsthand about challenges farmers are facing.

Meeting Monday with reporters, Branstad argued that as adjournment nears, there's a tendency for lawmakers to cut corners. The governor noted he vetoed a one-year spending bill last week and says the same fate awaits similar measures.

Branstad says he campaigned last year on a platform of fixing the state's budget and one key to doing that is approving long-term spending plans. He says that prevents lawmakers from using gimmicks, such as using one-time money to pay for ongoing spending programs.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) Two men who ran a software company in Clinton are expected to be sentenced on charges they committed visa fraud to bring foreign workers to the U.S.

Fazal Mehmood and Viheet Maheshwari have pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to make false statements and commit visa fraud in connection with several applications to bring foreign workers to the U.S. under H-1B Visas.

Federal prosecutors say they applied for H-1B Visas for foreign workers that contained false statements about their jobs and work locations. For instance, they told the government that employees would be working as programmers and analysts, but those jobs did not exist after they arrived in the U.S.

Sentencing is Wednesday at the federal courthouse in Davenport.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) North Carolina's Harrison Barnes will return for his sophomore season instead of declaring for the NBA draft.

The 6-foot-8 forward was widely regarded as the nation's top freshman entering the season and helped the Tar Heels win the ACC regular-season championship before getting within a game of the Final Four.

In a statement from the school Monday, Barnes said the team was preparing for a ``special season'' with the goal of winning a national championship.